Jeopardy - a Game of Life - RF #71

Damn, lady, you are good.



:wink:

Yikes...ehBeth....flashback, flashback.

We know who and what to blame. Greedy individuals, corporations and politicians who don't want to admit that environmental concerns are part of doing business...like salaries, overhead, the juice from borrowing money. Everyone is so afraid of ruffling the businessmen that they continue to shoot themselves, everyone else, the economy and the future, in the feet. Or perhaps knees.

Click

It's the middle of the week - all clicked.....................

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060530/nytu150.html?.v=58

Global Warming Expected to Raise the Severity of Poison Ivy; More (and Itchier) Seasons Predicted in Coming YearsT


IRVINGTON, N.Y., May 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Concern about poison ivy may no longer be limited to campers, hikers and worried parents during the warm, summer months. According to a study published in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists reported that increasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, considered a major contributor to global warming, would foster an environment conducive to widespread poison ivy growth by the year 2050.

A leading scientific expert predicts that under atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations the planet will likely reach by the middle of this century, poison ivy will grow not only faster and bigger, but also more poisonous. Researchers from Duke University and Harvard reported that poison ivy exposed to higher carbon dioxide levels grew about three times larger and produced a more allergenic form of urushiol, the toxic oil that causes poison ivy rash.

Want to see some neat video?

http://www.kptv.com/Global/story.asp?S=4967065

The U.S. Geological Survey recorded a 3.1 magnitude earthquake on Mount St. Helens on Monday.

This is some home video taken from the ten-thousand foot level of Mount Rainier.

Scientists say the earthquake coincided with a rockfall from the growing lava dome.

The earthquake sent a flow of rock and dust from the new dome.

The quake also sent a plume of steam and ash 20-thousand feet in the air.

Poor Canada.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/30/AR2006053001429.html?nav=most_emailed_emailafriend

Canada Pays Environmentally for U.S. Oil Thirst
Huge Mines Rapidly Draining Rivers, Cutting Into Forests, Boosting Emissions

By Doug Struck
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, May 31, 2006; Page A01

FORT MCMURRAY, Alberta -- Huge mines here turning tarry sand into cash for Canada and oil for the United States are taking an unexpectedly high environmental toll, sucking water from rivers and natural gas from wells and producing large amounts of gases linked to global warming.

The digging -- into an area the size of Maryland and Virginia combined -- has proliferated at gold-rush speed, spurred by high oil prices, new technology and an unquenched U.S. thirst for the fuel. The expansion has presented ecological problems that experts thought they would have decades to resolve

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/climate/2006-05-29-spring-blooms_x.htm?csp=34



Track the lilacs, help researchers
By Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY

Want to track global warming in your own backyard?
A program funded in part by the National Science Foundation is recruiting citizen scientists to note when lilacs, honeysuckles and other plants first leaf out and bloom.

The data will help scientists track the arrival of spring, which since 1955 is coming about six days earlier in the Northern Hemisphere, says Mark Schwartz, a climatologist at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Coordinated by Schwartz and Julio Betancourt, a senior scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey, the program aims to build a network of observers to track changes in how plants respond to the weather.

Several universities and federal agencies also are participating, as are elementary and high school students across the country.

You and your 298 friends have supported 2,405,306.4 square feet!

Marine Wetlands habitat supported: 114,271.5 square feet.

American Prairie habitat supported: 52,529.2 square feet.

Rainforest habitat supported: 2,238,505.7 square feet.

~~~~~~~~~~~

funny about those lilacs, sumac. if abuzz was still around, I'd be able to track the last 5 or 6 years of when the lilacs bloomed around here - it always inspires some kind of post

We have both lilacs and honeysuckle around our home in NE TX. I noticed they both bloomed early - really early - but didn't mark the dates. Here, everything budded and bloomed early - it's still Spring and leaves are turning brown and falling like Fall. I think we are in for some extreme climate changes.

I heard on the news this morning that 'hurricane' season is beginning today - and, that the average ocean temps are 1 to 1 1/2 degrees above normal. That means we will have more hurricanes this year.

sumac,
Thanks for the Mt St Helens site - the video wasn't very good but we got the idea. I remember walking the mountain trails in E WA two years after the big eruption and still there was gritty ash on the foliage. Amazing, considering the leaves had grown back twice. Still, there it was. Probably the wind blowing ash dust from the rocks and ground.

And you thought you were smart? These kids (4th - 8th graders) participated in geography jeopardy, hosted by Alex Tribek. These kids knew the answers off the top of their heads!


http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/05/060524-geographic-bee.html


Illinois Eighth Grader Wins National Geographic Bee
Ben Harder
for National Geographic News

After a final hour of exhausting competition, Bonny Jain held up the winning ticket for the 2006 National Geographic Bee: a card on which he'd scrawled "Cambrian."

That word answered the tiebreaker: "Name the mountains that extend across much of Wales from the Irish Sea to the Bristol Channel."

With his correct response, Jain claimed a U.S. $25,000 scholarship prize, the title of Bee champion, and a lifetime membership in the National Geographic Society. (National Geographic News is part of the National Geographic Society.)

His victory wasn't without a few nail-biting moments. At one point Trebek asked Jain to name the Saharan tribe that signed a 1995 peace agreement with the government of Niger.

"I was debated between the Tuareg and Fulani," Jain said later. After a moment's hesitation, he guessed Tuareg. The answer kept him in the match.

Other tough questions:

The Kikuyu, who led the Mau Mau uprising against the British, are the largest ethnic group in which country in East Africa?" Trebek asked.


Geothermal springs are an attraction near Rotorua in what country?

Name the only African nation that has Spanish as its official language.

From what northern Indian town, in a province of the same name, can one glimpse Mount Everest? ""Name the Australian island territory in the Indian Ocean that was named for the day it was seen in 1643."

aktbird57 - You and your 298 friends have supported 2,406,922.0 square feet!

Marine Wetlands habitat supported: 114,435.4 square feet.
You have supported: (0.0)
Your 298 friends have supported: (114,435.4)

American Prairie habitat supported: 52,576.0 square feet.
You have supported: (12,782.0)
Your 298 friends have supported: (39,794.0)

Rainforest habitat supported: 2,239,910.5 square feet.
You have supported: (171,025.2)
Your 298 friends have supported: (2,068,885.4)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

2406922.0 square feet is equal to 55.26 acres

sumac,
Today, there was an excert segment on the 'Today Show' which actually showed a brief of the very thing you are speaking about. It showed Alex in the very feature you have mentioned. Go figure !!!! What are the odds???

Great going !!!

Morning all,

clicked..........

This evening I will be with the surviving members of my high school graduating class - it's the 45th reunion. There were 62 of us in the beginning - I think about 18 will meet tonight.

And there was once a thread about the kids not knowing their geografie.

Have a great reunion, Danon.

Torrent rain, very windy, rather cold- and an open air concert tonight at Schönbrunn
We are having a long holiday- the weather doesn't fit.

Sorry about your weather, Ul, and hope the reunion is fun, Danon.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/01/AR2006060101684.html?referrer=email&referrer=email

Whaling Agency Faces a Possible Shift
Environmentalists Fear Nations Backing Expanded Hunts May Gain Control

By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 2, 2006; A03



Japan and Norway, two nations that have refused to give up large-scale whaling despite widespread condemnation, are on the cusp of gaining control of the international commission that since 1986 has strictly limited whale hunting in an effort to rebuild the population of Earth's largest creatures.

The impending shift, which will be on display when the International Whaling Commission convenes on the island of St. Kitts for its annual meeting on June 16, has alarmed environmentalists and officials from countries that oppose commercial whaling, including the United States, Australia and New Zealand. They note that in recent years Japan has recruited at least 19 countries -- many from West Africa and the Caribbean -- to join the commission and support expanded whaling

http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2006/06/02/news/regional/93c038c6609a1a3587257180006b4ea7.txt

Park pollution rises

By JUDITH KOHLER
Associated Press writer Friday, June 02, 2006





DENVER -- With high levels of nitrogen that scientists fear could lead to fish die-offs and other permanent environmental changes, the superintendent of Rocky Mountain National Park is recommending cutting air pollution levels in half at what is often called the "crown jewel" of Colorado.

Environmentalists hailed the recommendation by park superintendent Vaughn Baker as "a truly historic step." Baker said levels of nitrogen detected at the park are 15 to 20 times the amount found in nature.

"Two decades of scientific research have shown that the world-class alpine lakes, forests and Colorado's renowned greenback cutthroat trout are hard hit by rising air pollution at Rocky Mountain National Park," said Dan Grossman, director of the regional office of Environmental Defense.

Vickie Patton, staff attorney for Environmental Defense, said Baker's recommendation is based on more than 20 years of research and is the first time a national park in this country has used that kind of science-driven management tool. She said "critical loads" for pollutants, the threshold above where adverse effects occur, have been established in Canada and Europe.

I am going to try something, but I doubt it will work. I think that National Geographic probably copyrights its' acquisitions nicely. However, this is a beautiful photo of two herons fighting (mock) over a fish that one of them dropped and a third took away.

We'll give it a try.

You and your 298 friends have supported 2,408,537.5 square feet!

Marine Wetlands habitat supported: 114,599.3 square feet.
You have supported: (0.0)
Your 298 friends have supported: (114,599.3)

American Prairie habitat supported: 52,599.5 square feet.
You have supported: (12,782.0)
Your 298 friends have supported: (39,817.4)

Rainforest habitat supported: 2,241,338.7 square feet.
You have supported: (171,048.6)
Your 298 friends have supported: (2,070,290.2)

Click